A Different 2.0

Damsels & Dragons II: Femmes Seek Funds!

Cleric, Rogue and left hip of Stone Golem . . . With Sai!?!

I know I like to give the fairer sex money if it means I get to watch, there are costumes involved, and they are very talented at what they do. I've mentioned this crew before and bemoaned the apparent drop in activity. Thanks to The Mary Sue I heard about a renewed effort to activate the shelved series.

Circulate them fun things kids! And peep the vid on my old post (click "before"), it's still the one I laugh at most. And there aren't many other vids online that aren't the episodes themselves. Gogo!

Ladies Playing Pretend

Who doesn't like it when a bunch of lovely women get dressed up and then start make believe. . . That they're warriors, clerics, and monsters?

Continuing on my RPG webseries kick, I also finally watched Dragons & Damsels. With Mirai Booth-Ong from The Guild (I may or may not do a post about that as it has a bit more popularity then a lot of the stuff I post about, I think you all know what it is).

My quick, snarky, over-simplified impression was, like many girls I like, short, pretty, something deep about them, but unfortunately leave me frustrated in ways I can't fix.

To elaborate, I think the short part is obvious, it is very well produced, as in the camera work is fine, the audio is excellent, and I believed these characters lived in this world, they seemed to have lives and desires and dreams.

I liked how there were plots that were alluded to and there was set idea of how the game went, all that sort of thing.

However, the first story arc finished after eight short episodes and no one besides bots have posted anything on the site or the forum since '09. It feels like they had intended to do quite a bit further with the world but have left it or are unable to continue it for whatever reason. If there had been anything on the site to suggest that that was it and the project was finished I might feel a bit more closure, but as it is, my neuroses is agitated by such frivolous things, ah well.

If they do decide to clean up the forum and perhaps begin a new story arc I hope I will be able to find it or see it advertised as it was fun and think it has quite a lot of potential.

1 part fem, 1 part drake, mix vigorously!

P.S. Apparently back in 2010 a few of the ladies filmed character Vlogs for their youtube channel, and although I liked the thief & the cleric, this one was the one that actually made me laugh.

Common Vocabulary

As you hang around you might notice certain proclivities within my vocabulary. Today I think it might be nice to define and clarify some things that might confuse or just generally help give insight into some of the madness running around here.
Also, don't feel afraid to look up any word I use, even if you know the word, I often twist and have my way with meanings. Something I know I enjoy sharing with some of my closest friends. I.e. the inordinate amount of food metaphors for things that are distinctly NOT edible in any way.
(Me being geeky at a LAN party. ol school, no flat screens. back in HS days)

Definitions:

Geek: A self identifying term I use constantly. To me a geek is CAPABLE, not necessarily comfortable, but capable of social interaction and more often than not, enjoys it, especially when in the company of other geeks. Common interests can range from anime to movies, to music, to zoology. He (I use the male tense because frankly, its from a male perspective, but I know many female geeks, I'm engaged to one.) may not be born a geek, nor may he even realize what he is, but will more often than not become aware at some point in his pursuit of things geeky. Such as conventions, D&D, Renaissance Faires, reenactments, video games.

Nerd: In its potentially negative form, a nerd is one who is socially retarded, wallows in his outcast state and resentful of a world that does not understand his obsessions, nor his singular focus on ideas that many might find trivial.
In its more mundane definition and in both situations a Nerd is smart and often a specialist in what ever subject his fanboy heart clings to. By result, his knowledge usually surpasses that of the geek, but at the cost of being less well versed in other things.
(as this very guy would often yell at me, "NERD!!!")

Trekkie vs. Trekker: As I understand it (and I'm not sure I entirely do, as I am a Star Wars fan first, but my fiance is a ST:NG fan so I have sampled it as well and enjoyed it.) Trekkie/Trekky is someone who is a Trek Nerd. A sad creature who speaks klingon, has SEVERAL starfleet uniforms and has an opinion on who the better captain was that would rival religious fervor in the middle east. They are numerous and not to be trifled with, use caution when interacting with them. As well as be kind, they know not what they are. A Trekker is a Trek obsessed geek, very similar to a trekky in most habits and collectibles, however, will only THREATEN to cut off your head with a Bat'Leth if you disagree with their chosen captain.

Freak: A horrid beast akin to a nerd but without any redeeming values. A freak doesn't know how to wear a trench coat, wears black faded jeans with said trench coat, and is rarely a viable expert on any geeky/nerdy subject, but believes himself to be one. Often names his characters after main characters from whatever realm he cherishes at the time thinking he is the first to do so, but stubbornly refuses to be creative when confronted with the fact that several hundred have come before him. So, left to his own design forces names such as "xStriderx3285" or "neofromthematrix" upon the world. Trolls, noobs, flamers, reprobates, the filth of our sub-culture. Often they will attempt to perpetuate the idea that others believe they are actually witches/vampires/werewolves/aliens/not virgins, no matter how solid any argument is otherwise. Take the high road and either ignore them, or try to be generous and tactful in your recommendations about being less of a dick and maybe try creating an awesome character of their own. . . . . which brings me to a theory . . .

In Live Action Role Playing:
-LARP by yourself- Masturbating. But you're doing it by yourself, so no harm done.
-2 person LARP- If it's out of normal campaign progression there shouldn't be any need to dress up, SO then its naughty
As soon as you get a third person or more in on the action, SOMEBODY, somehow, one of the participants will get too into it, get a little out of hand, or try too hard and turn into a freak. Ruining the experience altogether, or worse in my opinion, making things JUST uncomfortable enough to distract from play and then letting everyone dwell on the idea that things might get out of hand.
If you can not identify who this person is, step back, asses the situation and I can only offer 3 solutions; 1, YOU"RE IT! I'm sorry, try not to reproduce. 2, you're all it, in which case cease and desist, you are a danger to yourselves and society, go play a console game or seek counseling. 3, a miracle has occurred, you managed to find an assemblage of geeks who not only trust each other, but realize boundaries, follow rules and put just enough enthusiasm into it to make the game great, but not at the expense of their real lives. Cherish this, for in my decade plus of geeky experience I have never even heard rumors of such a thing.

Geek Ph34r

Do you like ghost stories? A chilling tale around the campfire? Well, in our modern age even the youngest listener can be doubtful of even the most gruesome lake-side myths. So, here I have a fairly modern, geek-centric telling of a terrible occurrence I developed recently. Feel free to use it at your own outings. I think this can be adapted easily to most locals; such as cons, fairs or its native root of the campsite.

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The hand full of us sat around the campfire as we roasted marshmallows, I know, how wonderfully cliche.
A quiet calm descended over the group as a particularly nipping breeze floated through the woods.
I made an over dramatic sigh and looked about obviously, letting my view linger up at the starry sky.

"Mel loved nights like this," I said wistfully.

"Mel? your ex?" My friend asked.

"No, his name was Melvin, and he was a frie . . um, more like an acquaintance of mine a few years back." I said as I stoked the fire and looked away despondently. "Poor guy," I continued, "I wonder if they ever found him."

Several raised eyebrows met my eyes as well as my cryptic comment.

"Melvin Butram, poor kid, what a name, went to my rival high school back in Stockton, but I knew him through LARPing. Our group used to come up here for our games. We were the Edhelian Larp Fun Society. ELFS? I didn't name it. It was during that time in my life I developed my "Theory on LARPing by the Numbers" and stopped playing shortly thereafter. But I always remember poor Melvin."

I leaned forward, settling into the story and lowered my voice a bit. Something made me nervous.

"He was very quiet, very typically nerdy. Big glasses, big boned, freckles, could not talk to girls, even in character, he'd just stutter. But, he was very talented, he always had the best outfits, armour, weapons. The noobs were always asking for his help, and he did his best to teach what he could. My buddy mike once asked him how he got so good, Melvin's reply was 'lots of free time.' We were very inclined to believe him since as far as we knew he never had any party's, a girlfriend, or anything. On occasion we'd invite him to our parties, LAN's, whatever, but he only ever came to LARP events."

The sound of the crackling fire, the wind in the trees and our slow breaths were all we could hear as I made a concerned face.

"It was funny. well, funny odd, not funny 'ha,ha.' He was a big guy but he was real good at live action, especially the combat. He took it very serious as far as not getting hit, that wounds were big deals. And any time he could help with first aid he would jump right in. He was almost always either the last person in his crew to die or not at all.
One time he 'died' in a melee that was a real bad call by one of the game masters and you could tell by Mel's face he was not pleased about the call. So he lied down and waited. A cleric came by and 'rezed' him and then he kinda snapped for a bit. He jumped up, let out a real 'GEEYYAAAGGGHH!!!' you know, startled a couple people near him, and ran down the guy who 'killed' him, guy's name was Chris. Even after he had returned the favor, he kept hitting the ground next to Chris, sorta as if the ground had been Chris' 'corpse' and then after about a good solid thirty seconds or so went off and slaughtered like four or five other enemy players that were honestly too easy. It was like Melvin . . . I don't know . . . he followed all the rules, I think he just took it too seriously."

A couple of my fellow campers shifted as I looked up with a pensive look on my face.

"Then it got close to graduation and we heard he got held back. Apparently he flunked out of most of his classes because he was skipping a lot of school. Our buddy 'Jeebus,' who we shared a Vocational class with some of the guys who went to school with Melvin, said he had gotten addicted to an MMO. Ever? . . Galax? . . no, it was one of the more gritty ones. Dark ages? I don't remember, but anyway.
Melvin only started coming to the longer outings up here. Nothing shorter than a four day weekend. He became even more quiet and the only time we saw him smile was when we were doing combats."

I gave a slight grin as I continued, " except one week, spring break, we were up here and he was all smiles. When asked what had him so happy he said he'd met somebody. We were all happy for him. Wondering who she was or if she was even real, but he was in a good mood and that was cool." My face then turned to a grimace. "But, about a month later, Melvin disappeared."

"After a week or so rumor got round that they found his room empty of all of his practical weapons and his computer on to a character log in screen. When the investigators logged in they found he had been on an RP server and a chat log where he had confessed his love to another character in game. Initially, the other player played along through RP, about a month earlier, and Melvin's character had mentioned meeting or leaving with the other character to 'the woods of Edhelian'," I said with emphasis as I motioned to the woods around me.
"Apparently when Mel dropped the bomb and gave the other player a real life address to get out here, the other player put Mel on ignore and never replied to him again, even reported him for abuse. So, the cops came out here as this was the only other lead they could find. All they ever found was his bicycle. They searched out here for another month. We all graduated without hearing any sort of updates. His parents were crushed."



"A couple years back though, I was talking to Ricky, one of Jeebus' best friends, and he said they had to stop LARPing out here because the younger kids were getting scared and players of all ages were getting hurt in freak accidents. One kid even died. The rangers said he was attacked by a predator because he had massive lacerations, but anybody who's been up here more than a few times can tell you, the most vicious thing up here is a raccoon. The creepy thing to me, is that the kid was dressed as an 'evil warlock' and Melvin almost always played a 'good ranger.' On top of that, last year they had a couple hikers go missing. They found the bodies a week and a half later, bound, gagged and dead in a cave. The cave had had a basic fire pit, some leaves that resembled bedding, and the plastic of an eyglass lens. Both hikers had twenty-twenty vision."

I looked up in suprise. I lowered my hand to my pocket and reached in.
"W-T- . . . . AAAHH!!!!" I screamed as I pulled the pair of hornrimed glasses from my pocket, they were missing one lense and were scratched and bloodied.